Overview

TheBugTrack is an easy-to-use online issue tracking and team collaboration tool designed specifically for Google Apps users. No setup is required. TheBugTrack eliminates the tedious setup and IT support associated with traditional bug tracking systems. Simplicity and usability are at the core of TheBugTrack service.

TheBugTrack is easy to use while providing a rich set of bug tracking features:

Based on your requests, new features are regularly added to TheBugTrack service to meet your issue tracking needs.

A Bug's Life Cycle

Change Bug's State

User could take the following actions to modify a bug or change bug's state.

Submit a Bug

Click "Compose Bug" button to start composing a new bug.

Click "Discard" button to abort the process of creating new bug.

Click "Save Draft" button to save a draft bug before submission.

Click "Submit" button to submit a new bug. If fixer is not filled, bug stays at "New" state. If fixer is filled, bug changes to "Assigned" state.

Assign a Bug

"Assign" a bug moves bug from "New" state to "Assigned" state. Click "Assign" button to start the process of assigning a bug.

Find a Bug

To load bug by ID, enter bug ID in the search box and click "Find by ID" button.

Enter any text in search box and click "Search" button to perform full text search of bugs.

User-Created Workgroup

As an issue tracking service, TheBugTrack started with tight integration with Google Apps domain. Any Google Apps administrator can add TheBugTrack service from Google Apps Marketplace. Google Apps user likes the seamless integration such as automatic user sync-up between TheBugTrack service and Google Apps domain.

However we are often asked how users not from Google Apps can use TheBugTrack service. We are happy to report, with latest build, any user who has a gmail address or Yahoo! email address can use TheBugTrack service.

Firstly, from the welcome page, you will find three log in icons: log in as Gmail user, log in as Google Apps user, or log in as Yahoo! user:

Both Google and Yahoo! support OpenID standard, and your log in request will be redirected to Google or Yahoo! to verify your user credential. It's win-win situation here, as user you don't need to create yet another user name and password to use TheBugTrack service, and as an online service TheBugTrack doesn't need to handle user password management.

Next, after logging in as Gmail or Yahoo! user, you can create your own workgroup. The only thing you need is a workgroup name. You can add a workgroup icon if you like. Here is the workgroup setup page:

After the workgroup is created, you can start invite users to your workgroup! TheBugTrack will send an email invitation to the new user and the new can accept the invitation with a simple click. Let the bug filing begin for your new workgroup!

Links

TheBugTrack supports tab called "Links" in bug record. From "Links" tab, user can add links to other bugs, or add URL link to any web page. Please see screen capture below:

To add a new link, please click "Add a link". A new "Link" dialog will show up:

Please input any bug ID you'd like the current bug links to in edit box and then click "Find bug". After bug is found, please add your comments and then click "OK". A new link between two bugs is now created.

You can also create a link with an URL, please click "Web address" radio button:

After links are created, you can find them on "Links" tab:

Reports

TheBugTrack provides basic report feature. To navigate to report page, please click "Report" link on the top right menu bar.

By default, TheBugTrack report page shows last seven days bug count of "Assigned" state, with a line chart. User could easily change the query date range, as well as add/remove bug count trend lines of different states, such as "New", "Assigned", "In Test" and "Closed".

Predefined Queries

TheBugTrack provides a set of default queries to meet most common needs for all users.

My Tickets

All the tickets in this list meet one of these two criteria:

Bug in "New" or "Assigned" state and the "Fixer" is the user. Or,

Bug in "In Test" state and the "Tester" is the user.

Above the bug list, an informational bar describes the query: "Bugs assigned to me to fix, or bugs which have been resolved waiting for me to test."

My Archive

All the tickets in this list meet both criteria below:

Bug is in "Closed" state. And,

Bug's "Fixer" or "Tester" or "Submitter" is the user.

Above the bug list, an informational bar describes the query: "Bugs in "Closed" state which were either submitted by me, fixed by me or tested by me."

Submitted by Me

All the tickets in this list meet the following criteria:

Bug is NOT in "Closed" state.

Bug's "Submitter" is the user.

Above the table view, there should be an informational bar describes the query: "Bugs submitted by me which are yet to be closed".

All 'New'

All the tickets in this list meet the following criteria:

Bug is in "New" state.

All 'Assigned'

All the tickets in this list meet the following criteria:

Bug is in "Assigned" state.

All 'In Test'

All the tickets in this list meet the following criteria:

Bug is in "In Test" state.

All 'Closed'

All the tickets in this list meet the following criteria:

Bug is in "Closed" state.

Create Your Own Queries

TheBugTrack service supports complex query with all the fields, including default fields and custom fields created by user.

User can create a query by clicking "Create Query" link next to the "Find Bug" button:

Each query shall has a unique name within the project, and optionally a text description. User can combine multiple filtering criteria of any field, getting result with either "All" of these conditions are met, or "Any" one of these conditions are met.

For each condition, there are three columns. First column is to allow user select a condition field from a drop-down list of all supported fields. Second column represents a condition type, such as "In", "Equals", "Greater than", "Less than", etc. Third column is values of the condition.

Upon executing a query, TheBugTrack always returns the query result in a table view which includes the following default columns: bug ID, bug title, state, severity and submit time. From this table view, user can click any specific bug to view its detail.

From this tab, user can easily add or remove columns for the query result table view.

Please note that bug ID and title are required fields for table view.

Change Query Result Display

Upon executing a query, TheBugTrack always returns the query result in a table view which includes the following default columns: bug ID, bug title, state, severity and submit time. From this table view, user can click any specific bug to view its detail.

From this tab, user can easily add or remove columns for the query result table view.

Please note that bug ID and title are required fields for table view.

Overview

TheBugTrack supports multiple projects so customers can separate their bugs into different projects or problem domains, with different set of attributes. Each project maintains its own continuous ID set for its bugs.

By default, each customer account starts with one project, called "Project1". Administrative user can click "Administration" link to configure more than one project under tab "Projects".

Most settings, such as bug severity level, subsystem, and custom fields are applied on project basis. Only user roles settings and appearance settings are applied to the whole account.

To go to project settings, user can go to Administration page first, then click "Project Settings" on "Projects" tab. Or user can click "Settings" next to project drop-down list on bug home page.

Custom Fields

Custom fields are configured on "Custom Fields" tab in project settings. After adding a new custom field to a project, this new field will be displayed on the main form view of every bug within this project.

Each custom field has a unique name and an optional description. Name is used as field label on bug's main form view or as column header in bug list view.

Currently three types of custom fields are supported.

Enumeration list

This field will be shown as a drop-down list in bug's main form view. User needs configure the allowed value list (enumeration) for this field.

Free text

This field will be shown as a free-form edit box in bug's main form view.

Date

This field will be shown as a date field in bug's main form view.

Email Notification

TheBugTrack supports email notifications when a bug is submitted, assigned, resolved, closed, or modified. Here are details on how you can setup email notification rules.

Firstly, please click "Settings" next to your project name to enter the project settings page:

On settings page, please click tab "Email Notifications":

On "Email Notification" tab, you will find there are five possible triggers of email notification:

When bug is submitted

When a bug is submitted and stays at "New" state. No default rule for this trigger.

When bug is assigned

When a bug enters "Assigned" state, or fixer has been changed. By default, "fixer" is notified when a bug is assigned.

When bug is resolved

When a bug enters "In Test" state, or tester has been changed. By default, "tester" is notified when a bug is resolved.

When bug is closed

When a bug enters "Closed" state. No default rule for this trigger.

When any change to a bug

When any changes happening to a bug within this project. The changes could be state transition, or bug modification, or simply adding a note. No default rule for this trigger.

User can click the checkbox in front of each rule to turn on/off a specific rule, and click "Edit" box to edit this rule, as the image below shows:

In rule edit dialog, user can set if the email notification is sent to bug submitter, fixer, tester, or any other email addresses. Manually-input email addresses should be separated by comma (,) or semicolon (;).

Each email notification contains the following information related a bug:

Bug title

Bug state

Project name

Bug ID, with unique link to open this bug.

Bug type

Bug severity

Action which triggers this email notification.

Bug submitter

Bug fixer

Bug tester

Bug description

Below is an example of email notification:

Overview

TheBugTrack supports multiple projects so customers can separate their bugs into different projects or problem domains, with different set of attributes. Each project maintains its own continuous ID set for its bugs.

By default, each customer account starts with one project, called "Project1". Administrative user can click "Administration" link to configure more than one project under tab "Projects".

Most settings, such as bug severity level, subsystem, and custom fields are applied on project basis. Only user roles settings and appearance settings are applied to the whole account.

To go to project settings, user can go to Administration page first, then click "Project Settings" on "Projects" tab. Or user can click "Settings" next to project drop-down list on bug home page.

At any time workgroup administrator can use "Roles" tab under "Administration" settings to customize fixer, tester and administrator list. Please see screen capture below:

Appearance

From "Appearance" tab under "Administration" link, user can upload his/her organization's own logo to be used on TheBugTrack service web pages. The image file should be JPG, PNG or GIF format and scaled to 150 x 70 pixels. Please do not include any trademarks which you are not authorized to use.